Human Factor (HF)

(Not aired yet)

Week starting September 29th, 1996

Phil Bedard & Larry Lalonde

Geraint Wyn Davies

Deborah Duchene as Janette

An arson squad investigator from Montreal named Mario Larouche is murdered at a hotel after a one-night stand. His date, coming back from the shower, sees the shooter through a window and later relates the episode to Nick and Tracy. The date sits down with a sketch artist, and the result is an identified composite of the killer that looks uncannily like Jeanette, who has been gone from Toronto for some time now. From forensic evidence, Natalie suggests that it seems that Mario Larouche knew the killer or he wouldn't have let her get close enough to pull a gun on him. Nicholas is exceedingly troubled, and goes to Lacroix for help. Lacroix scoffs at the idea that the woman is Jeanette, insisting that "I would have sensed her." Both of them are still hurt that Jeanette chose to leave in the first place. In addition, Lacroix is resentful toward Nicholas because Jeanette confided in him that she wanted to leave because Nicholas was making her doubt the vampire in herself.

Jeanette has indeed returned to Toronto, though she has not yet shown herself to anyone but Mario Larouche, whom she killed. She is not alone, however; she has brought a young boy, Patrick, along with her, and they seem to have relatives in common. She leaves him with an aunt, returns to the city, and is sprayed with bullets in her car in a driveby. Unhurt but frightened, Jeanette turns to the only place she will feel safe: Nicholas.

Nick is very surprised when she turns up in his apartment, and she confirms that she is Larouche's killer. She gives him a choice: turn her in for murder or help her finish what she came to Toronto to do. They take the day to sleep on it and in the evening Nicholas agrees to help her. First, Jeanette apologizes for abandoning him, but she was beginning to doubt herself, and therefore wanted to reaffirm the vampire in herself, before she began to long for mortality like he did. Yet in Montreal, she stumbled into the very trap she had hoped to avoid. She explains that she has come to Toronto to search for evidence that will clear the good name of her mortal Montreal friend and lover, the late Robert McDonaugh, and she needs to retrieve it from a locker from the Toronto civic center before someone else does. As they travel to the civic center, Jeanette shares her story.

Robert McDonaugh was a fireman who rescued Jeanette from a high-rise fire set by Mario Larouche in order to collect insurance money from a Toronto developer. Robert and Jeanette fell confortably in love, and Jeanette became a second mother to Robert's son, Patrick. Finally, the relationship got so serious, Jeanette told him what she was, and for once the mortal didn't run away -- their love grew. When Robert discovered that Mario & Co. were responsible for the fires and corruption within the arson quad, Robert decided to 'join' them as a spy, to bring down the ring. His mistake was underestimating how ruthless Larouche was.

Nicholas and Jeanette arrive at the locker, and are opening it when Nick realizes they're being followed by two men. They leave hurridly and are followed by the thugs. At the last moment, they fire shots and run away, but one shot has hit Jeanette. Nick practically drags her to the door before he realizes she's in pain -- it's true, she tells him -- she's mortal.

Meanwhile, Tracy's been visiting Patrick McDonaugh and his aunt Peggy. She's trying to find out about Jeanette, and Patrick tells her that he brought her to Toronto to visit 'Uncle Nicholas.' He brings Tracy a picture -- you guessed it -- it's Nick. She leaves and goes back to the station, where she has minimal success in sorting things out.

Nick brings a bleeding, trembling Jeanette in to the only safety he knows -- Natalie. Natalie, needless to say, immediately feels betrayed by fate and demands of Jeanette to know how it happened. As Natalie dresses the wound, Jeanette finishes her story. She recounts that each time she and Robert made love, he also let her feed, and his blood calmed her heart in a way that she was able to let him live each time. She thinks that this, added to the deep love that she and Robert shared, is what caused her to regain her mortality. Robert, however, was shot by a sniper to keep him silent about the arson affair, and it was then, as she tried unsuccessfully to vamp to give Robert back his life, that she realized she had become fully mortal. She finishes by saying she's ready to confess and face the consequences. Natalie lets her call Patrick to let him know what's happenning, but when she calls Peggy's house, it's the thugs from the civic center who answer. They want the key in exchange for Patrick and Peggy. Nick and Jeanette take Nat's car and Nat holds down the fort when Tracy comes by with questions about Nick.

Nick and Jeanette reach the house and are prepared to make an exchange with Larouche's former associates, but they're double-crossed and fired upon right in front of Patrick and his aunt in the living room. The thugs detonate a bomb and the house begins to burn. Nicholas revives and gets the two mortals out of the house, but Jeanette is too badly wounded. He offers to bring her across again before it's too late, but she resists. She dies on the floor in his arms. He is overwhelmed. Nick has a brief dream of what would happen between him and Natalie if he could become mortal. He awakens to Captain Reese on his answering machine, calling him to the civic centre. A double murder. No sign of a suspect. When he arrives, Tracy shows him the evidence they found in an open locker near the bodies. Enough to blow the whistle on the arson ring that Mario Larouche was part of. Nicholas talks to Natalie, who concedes that the slim chance of Nick's mortality is not worth risking her life, as much as it hurts her not to try. She leaves him icily with this bit of mystique: the bodies of Larouche's thugs have vampire bite wounds in them. He is speechless, his guilt evident.

Nick meets briefly with a pensive Lacroix at CERK, who maintains that he seems to have lost a daughter, but regained a son. "Plus ca change, Nicholas," he muses.

Though a few of the flashbacks are Nick's brief remembrances of coming across, most of the flashbacks belong to Jeanette, as she tells the story of how she met the mortal man she fell in love with, and how she became mortal again. Lacriox also has a couple of flashbacks that give part of the story about why and how Jeanette left Toronto, but there appear to be gray areas to the story she gave, as if there may have been another motive.

Lacroix's involvement consists of brief involvement with Nicholas in the beginning, and then one biting exchange with him in the last scene. His monologue is rather a vulnerable one, explaining how winter protects the frozen heart. He then eases into a commentary on Jeanette, comparing her to a child lost in a fairground. He suspects that wherever she goes, she will eventually be left alone to face the coldness and desolation that she fears.

YAY! To the powers-that-be for giving Jeanette a proper goodbye! This is a fabulous episode. Great sensitivity for the characters from both the writers and actors. Nigel Bennet especially gave an ironic, vulnerable touch to Lacroix, and Deborah Duchene was luminous. Nat was rather unfairly treated on all sides (written like a shrew and the makeup -- baggy eyes again!) Check out Geraint's son, Galen, as Jeanette's adopted son -- they're nearly identical! The entire episode was *so* well done; I found myself comparing its style and form to such big-production movies as The Pelican Brief. The Human Factor is very much a complete movie within a 1-hour TV show. I sat in the dark and watched it, unable to tear myself away. I kept thinking, "Is she going to die, is he going to become mortal again?!" Great achievement for Geraint, as director, and check out his funky camera angles, especially the circumnavigating shot of Nicholas and Jeanette as they talk in the apartment. Movie buffs will get a huge kick out of this one. :)

Obviously, this is prime material for Immortal Beloveds. Nick&Natpackers will like the triangle tension that goes on, because eventually Nat is the one who 'gets' Nick, and Nick does show special sensitivity to Natalie in this episode. There's some good Dark Nightie material, especially the great part at the end when we realize that for once, Nick has given in.

Lacroix to Janette:	"Ah, yes, the joys of parenting strays -- we really must compare notes one day."
Janette:	"Eight hundred years is a long time to live with a cold heart, only for yourself."
Janette:	"Anyway, because he didn't listen to his brother-in-law, Napoleon lost at Waterloo. And then of course... Wellington's army had caterers and Napoleon's men had to eat rats and bugs."
Mario about Janette:	"You know, she could use some sun, that one."
Nat:	"A pathologist's advice is freely given. Most of my patients don't pay up anyway."
Janette to Nick:	"I forgot to tell you. I'm... I'm mortal."
Nick:	"Janette! Janette, I can bring you across! JANETTE!!!"
Lacroix:	"I don't know whether to laugh or to cry for you, Nicholas."

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